The heroes destination was Westtor, also known as the Aeonspire Citadel home to th wizards Zalthenna and Zaltar Evergaze, the Protectors of the West and part of the secret Triarch group. 

They spent their next few days getting their affairs in order and get some extra gear without drawing too much suspecion. 

Fenrir had left Amelia, Alfein and Orlando promising to catch up with them before they reached Aeonspire. 

The remaining three comrades, and Scatter, left at night guided by the spring starlight. The gate guards were more interested in their dice game than a small group of quite travelers leaving Daisygate. 

They journeyed through the night and as day dawned they saw three mills in the far distance and decided to aim for the mills to spend the night. 

The day was beautiful and the trek through the spring covered hills, uneventful apart from a small oddly smelling column of smoke that didn’t seem to be of interest. 

As they closed in on the three mills, snow started falling. While Amelia was clearly aware this was out of season, nothing indicated that the weather was in any way magically conjured. 

Town of Whitemill

The saw the first road sign saying “Whitemill 5 miles” indicating a settlement near the mills. And the closer they got the heavier the snow fell and soon they were walking through a winter landscape in spring!

They arrived at Whitemill where the local citizens were busing around. The vibe was good and cheerful. Whitemill was clearly a prospering and tightknit community. 

The welcoming townsfolk would smile at the heroes with a warm “Winter’s blessing to ya” greeting. 

The heroes noted that little figures of a white bearded man with a either tall or long hat were to be found everywhere. 

They also heard beautiful music from the north part of town, which they left in favour of entering the center of town: a combined tavern and woodworking workshop run my…..

Soon the party was sitting with food and drinks and learned from the locals that the figurines and dolls of the white bearded man was “Grandfather Winter”, a reveered figure who protected travelers going through Everfrost Forest to reach the East of Lunessence. 

They also learned that Grandfather Winter brought presents to the townsfolk when the sun was lowest during the year, but when questioned about details, none of the townsfolk seemed to recall seeing him. 

The heroes also noticed a group of 7 feral looking goblins arriving but causing no further trouble. 

 Then a traveling salesman in spoons approached them to introduce himself as Benjamin Balls. 

Benjamin explained that he was traveling alone to Aeonspire and was looking for traveling company on the road. 

The heroes knowing they had the green girl Scatter with them politely promised to think about it after which Benjamin left them to it. 

As he headed back to his table they noticed him sniffing frantically in the air a few times before changing direction and leave the establishment in a hurry. 

Night came and all travelers retreated to their rooms except for the Goblins that preferred sleeping the the adjacent stables. 

and the heroes woke up fresh from a good night’s rest. 

They decided to allow Benjamin with them, but wanted to make sure he understood they didn’t want any troubles. The salesman didn’t understand they subtle hints from Amelia and Alfein so Orlando stepped in impatiently but overdid it in he’s eager and scared Benjamin away. 

Feeling bad, Amelia followed him to his room and offered him to join them on their journey. 

As they got ready to leave they noticed the  goblins heading out. They also noticed they were a goblin short with only 6 remaining. But since the goblins didn’t seem bothered about this, the heroes brushed it off. 

An hour later our heroes with Benjamin Balls in tow, headed out. 

As soon as they stepped out they smelled the same odd smell as they had smelled on the hills coming from the stables. 

Here’s they found a sensibly stamped out camp fire with a spit roast with the remains of a half eaten barbecued Goblin!

The heroes left the smell in a hurry. 

Everfrost Forest

As afternoon came, the traveling companions reached Everfrost Forest, a beautiful forest where the permanent winter had shaped both flora and fauna. 

The road through the forest was both well maintained and will traveled and as they moved further in they could hear light voices singing a happy tune. 

Soon the first houses and huts indicated a settlement. And the further they ventured in the more they realised the first was home to a large town sprawling across the frosty forest ground and into the trees. 

The town was populated with merry gnomes  all wearing tall red hats. The gnomes greeted them with a quick “Winter’s Blessings” and asked if they could help the travelers. 

And as evening crept in, our heroes found themselves in a long hall for dinner with both the gnomes and the goblins from Whitemill. 

Alfein, now more curious about the goblins than ever, tried to strike up a conversation with the goblins but she realised these goblins were not the friendly types and the jagged menacing red tattoos going up either side of their green faces, didn’t encourage Alfein to overstay her welcome. 

The cheerful buzz went quite as a large round man in a red suit with white furry rims entered the hall. He had a large white wellcombed beard and a large soft red hat. 

Grandfather Winter. 

“Ho ho ho. Now we feast!!”, He boomed cheerfully as all the gnomes applauded and cheered along. 

Our heroes woke up in a prison transport wagon.

Alfein quickly checked the door but it was locked in a way that she couldn’t reach the lock.

And in any case the ride was short. A sleepshroom was thrown into the heroes, but having been on constant edge the last few days, they quickly covered their mouths.

The guards were surprised to find their prisoners awake, but the sheer number of them was still enough to guide them through what liked like the front office of a small shabby brewery and down in the basement where two newly made sturdy prison grade cells waiting them.

While our heroes were still groggy from the sleep poison they had succumbed to in the earlier fight, they were still puzzled why their captors had left them with all their gear.

Introducing Fenrir Camael, Asamir Druid with a secret.

The Aasimar Druid Fenrir Cameel went on about his day in the back of his shop “Fenrir’s Potions” in the Circle of Life neighbourhood.

Due to the murder of Daryl at the CopperPixie, there were more Daisyguards around than usual so he kept in doors. Not that he had anything illegal to hide, but to avoid causing a scene that would attract the lycans looking for him to be their leader or the Asminar looking to destroy him as an abomination.

The knock on the door startled him. Outside the door he found a cage with a postal pigeon with a message on it’s leg reading:

“Three people to be saved at Guttergold Brewery. Bring them to safety and let us know.” – Signed Wizards of Aeonspire.

The Wizards Zalthenna and Zaltar Evergaze were familiar to Fenrir. They were the High Wizards of the western most wizard tower: Westtor also know as Aeonspire Citadel.

They had caught him in his lycan form after he had killed his way through their stable staff. This was back when he couldn’t control it.

Rather than kill him, they had tried to cure the curse, but the unussual combination of Asimar blood with the lycanthrope curse had meant they were only partial successful.

He was grateful nevertheless as it had given him some control over the curse. Enough for him to be able to lead a civilised life in a city.

He immediately left for The Gutters to find Guttergold Brewery.

Guttergold Brewery

It didn’t take Fenrir long to find the little brewery. A quick survey around the building revealed that:

• Two Daisyguards were patrolling, which was suspecious as that was not normally the role of the city guards.
• Windows towards the back had recently been boarded up. So had all windows to the basement.
• Inside was a large Wolfen woman who looked like she either worked there or was the owner.

Fenrir quietly broke away the boarding too the basement on the left side of the building as it was the most private side.

Down in the basemen he saw 5 people in prison cells.

Amelia and Alfein had struck up a conversation with the two other prisoners in the adjacent cell.

They turned out to be Pop and Esmeralda Sprockle, the very parents of Pip three gnome boy who had lured them into Lopper Goldsmith’s trap.

It became clear that they had been captured and held hostage for over a month so that Lopper was able to force Pip to do his bidding whatever that might be.

The conversation was abruptly interrupted when Fenrir drank a Moon Howl Potion forcing his lycanthrope curse to surface.

He dropped his gear and clothes just in time for them not to be destroyed by his transformation before he jumped down into the basement.

Alfein didn’t waste time understanding the situation. All she saw was a distraction that gave her the opportunity to pick the high quality “Keep The Thieves Out 2000” lock.

She did it with such an ease that not even the tiniest click was heard.

As Fenrir tore the first of the three Iron Masquerade guards to shreds, Amelia and Orlando also clocked the opportunity and let Magic Missiles and daggers fly killing another of the guards and wooding the last one.

The fanatic Iron Mask left standing was undeterred by the carnage and stabbed Fenrir.

While the dagger didn’t do much damage, the sleep poison did its job and the feral werewolf fell asleep on the table.

To make matters worse, the Wolfen woman from above came down the stairs. Orlando jumped out of the cell to engage her before she could reach the sleeping werewolf.

Alfein dashed to the last Iron Mask to stop him from attacking the sleeping werewolf.

She tried to grab a dagger with sleep poison on it as she ran towards the captor but the slippery dagger slid out of her hand.

She continued undeterred and pulled her own weapons to cut the last Iron Mask down in two swift strikes.

Amelia saw the Wolfen bite at Orlando’s neck missing only by a fraction. The powerful jaws were clearly meant to kill even larger prey so Amelia went on the attack.

Fenrir woke up and charged the Wolfen drawing her attention with his strikes as Orlando stabbed with his daggers in her furry neck finally bringing down the mighty predator.

Amelia called out to Scatter to reveal herself as it was safe now.

Fenrir managed to control his curse and return to his Asminar state and explain he had been sent to rescue the three heroes but his orders didn’t include the two gnomes.

But the gnomes had seen too much. They had seen Scatter and they had seen Fenrir’s transformation.

It was quickly decided to bring them to Fenrir’s store on the little island on Circle of Life neighborhood.

Taking a breather in the Circle of Life

Back at Fenrir’s store, Alfein spoke out what was on everybody’s mind: Could Shatter really destroy memories? And could she do it to the gnomes?

The little green girl casually walked up to Esmeralda and seemed to pull an imaginary thread out of the gnome’s head and snip it with her fingers like they were scissors.

Esmeralda lowered her head for a second and when she raised it again, it was clear she had no idea where she was or how she got there.

Scatter performed the same childish ritual with Pop and the two gnomes were sent on their way back to their home in Thornlock.

The three heroes now realised they were safe for the first time since they were trusted with the crate that had held the sleeping Scatter.

They also realized they were now four partners. Fenrir’s connection to the Wizards and how the Wizards seemed to have an interest in the situation, meant they had a direction, a lead to follow.

They sat down to discuss how to prepare for a longer trip away, what to bring and how to make sure their absence would not arouse suspicion. 

And the evening went on as drinks kept flowing from Fenrir’s cellar

As the planning and the evening went on, wine, beer and good food turned into laughter as the four newly found friends.

The last couple of crazy days were forgotten for a moment as the party discussed whether it was true that The Dandelion Toybox, local toymaker, also made adult toys under the counter and the alcohol fueled friends ideated around potential adult toy names such as the “Vibrating Beholder Tentacle” for the ladies and the “Pocket Gelatinous Cube” for the gents.

 

 

It did not look good. With the Daisygate in front, thinking our heroes had murdered some innocent citizens, and Thornlock at their back, options were few for our heroes.

A few nods between them and they decided to take their chances with Thornlock. Unfortunately, Orlando got cut off by a surprisingly fast Daisyguard, who he gently put to sleep with a sleep spell, while the rest of the Daisyguard pursued the other two heroes as they legged it inside Thornlock.

The whole entrance started rumbling as the stacked make-shift buildings of Thornlock often did, but it was enough to make the Daisyguard think twice about entering so they were left standing at Alfein and Amelia, who equally didn’t know what to do.

Meanwhile, Orlando climbed up the exterior of Thornlock, up to what looked like a little house where he met Pip Sprockle, a stammering but cheerful Gnome boy. Pip quickly showed Orlando through the upper maze and out to the clearing where the other two heroes stood.

Suddenly the building started crumbling, so Orlando grabbed Pip and jumped to safety.

The Avenue of Lanterns

With multiple exits, the heroes decided to take the path that led to more light. But it was not daylight. Instead they walked down and avenue with bright lanterns on the walls, the floor, the ceiling.

In the Avenue of Lanterns they met many people, some acting like regular vendors, shopkeepers while other had utterly alien roles like the shouting teeth vendor.

Pip had told them about The Talking Chimney, but also warned them that while the Chimney seemed to have answers for everything, it came at a price.

The Talking Chimney

The Talking Chimney was a large menacing looking chimney with a foul smoke that rather than rise fell to the ground as a thick mist.

Next to the Chimney a tavern had been raised carrying the same name.

Pip did not like the place and stayed out, waiting for the heroes to return.

Inside the tavern the heroes were greeted by Sable, a short stout woman dressed all in grey with long black hair with a fringe going down to her mouth. Sable turned out to be a friendly and accomodating host despite er odd looks.

In the tavern they also met Cinder, tall and slender and silent woman in similar grey outfits with a similar hair cut, and Ash, a small woman also similar outfit and hair do, but sitting frantically writing in a large book.

As the dinner and conversation progressed, the heroes learned that Sable was the host and organised contracts with patrons visiting to ask the Chimney questions, Cinder acted as the mouth of the Chimney and Ash took the payment in the form of memories.

In the end the heroes decided to save questions for the ominous Chimney to another day and left after having been fed.

Memory of Distant Rain

Outside Pip was waiting patiently and the heroes asked if there was anybody they could ask some info and in the end Pip suggested visiting “Memory of Distant Rain”, a large, rather overweight white Tabaxi dressed only in a loincloth.

They showed him the Triarch logo and “Memory of Distant Rain” could tell them it was the logo of the wizards guarding Skylathar, but he was also ambiguous about it as if the wizards both were and were not the Triarch.

While Orlando and Amelia was familiar with the Wizards of the West, the residents of The Aeonspire Citadel, they did not know who the wizards in the other three towers were.

In payment of the answer Orlando offered up a song, not realising that the memory of the song would be taken from him.

“It’s a trap”

The heroes left “Memory of Distant Rain” and followed Pip as he led them to a nice cozy place to stay for the night.

Pip turned the corner and disappeared out of sight and by the time the party caught up, he was gone.

Instead the heroes faced the Inquisitor Lopper and a few Daisyguard, who had come to bring them out of Thorlock safely.

At first, the heroes followed as Lopper was known to them, but they felt something was wrong as Inqusitors always travel in pairs and Loppper was without his partner Karl Jorgenholt.

Suddenly a group of Iron Masquerade appeared and the fight was on.

Our heroes fought valiantly, but in the end fell victims to the sleep poison on the Iron Masks blades.

They woke up inside a armour prison wagon with a destination unknown

Orlando woke up with the little green girl staring at him.

With a mixture of playfullness and fright she gestured him to look downstairs, where somebody uninvited was rummaging around.

It was the local Kenku Shaman, Barnabeak, which Orlando found odd enough to run down and catch the feathered fellow.

Barnabeak had grown up on a ship so his mimicry was based on sailor jargon making it difficult to understand but by the time Amelia and Alfein woke up and joined the conversation, it was clear Barnabeak had heard about the fight at the Copper Pixie the night before and had brought a healing potion in case anybody was injured.

Or at least that was his claim, but when the heroes let slip that there was a girl somewhere that they had now lost while chatting, Barnabeak’s quirky pirate-y speech turned to the normal common tongue and he was very interested in the disappeared girl.

The heroes felt uncomfortable with the nosy Kenku and sent him out through the door.

As soon as he was gone, the girl appeared out of thin air. It turned out she could become invisible on command.

Furthermore the heroes were able to get the first word out of her when she introduced herself as “Shatter” before falling on all fours and running around like a feral cat.

Inquisitors Karl Jorgenholt and Lopper Goldsmith

Looking out the window to verify Barnabeak had indeed left, the heroes noticed the Daisyguard at the Copper Pixie. Two stood out wearing the Daisygate colours but not with chainmail and spears. Instead they wore regular cloaks with rapiers at their sides: Daisyguard Inquisitors. They were clearly investigating the murder of Daryl Dug-Deep.

And soon they were knocking on Amelia’s door.

While Orlando and Alfein hid, Amelia talked to the two Inqusitors. The somewhat unpolished Karl Jorgenholt, a large sweaty and sneezing man with his uniform in a state of disarray, while his colleague the tall and slender Lopper Goldsmith was immaculate, sophisticated and well spoken gentleman.

while Amelia didn’t learn much, she was able to exit the Inqusitors without them finding the other heroes in her place which would have looked mysterious.

Alfein heads back to the Copper Pixie

Alfein decided to go straight out the main door and walk to the Copper Pixie, while Orlando headed back to his base, The Golden Carnation.

Alfein was met by the investigators and managed to remain out of the grasp of the law, eventhough her array of knives, daggers, short swords did raise their eye brows.

Orlando reports a hate crime

Orlando decided to walk from his home towards the Copper Pixie to create a fuss by wanting to report a hate crime by the iron Masquerade the night before, much to the surprise of the Inquisitors.

The tactic worked and inquisitors made it clear that while they knew of Orlando’s shady business, they thought it unlikely that he would have commited the crime. Instead they asked for his help as he would be able to keep and ear closer to the ground.

Back at Divine Petals Bridal

Back at Amelia’s shop, Divine Petals Bridal, the heroes regrouped, not sure where to go next.

They had learned that Daryl had been killed by a vicious poison that had prevented Amelia’s healing prayers to take affect.

Could Barnabeak create such a lethal concoction?

The answer came to the heroes as Barnabeak was returning with four cloaked figures.

The heroes decided to setup defences inside. Orlando waited by the frontdoor, Amelia in the middle and Alfein at the backdoor that she also rigged with a dangerous trap.

The two Iron Masks coming from the backdoor were met with a nasty surprise.

And as Barnabeak and the other two Iron Masks came through the frontdoor to help, they were faced with Orlando and Amelia.

It was a tough fight, but in the end the heroes had dispatched the iron Masks and Orlando captured Barnabeak in a headlock.

The irritated heroes were now expecting answers from the feathered fellow.

 

So this is it.

It all comes down to this moment in time.

On this field of carnage with dead warriors as far as the eye can see.

You are your colleagues, companions, friends have journeyed through thick and thin to reach this moment.

This was not what you had planned with your lives, but you are immensely grateful that you are all together in this.

You struggle to understand the creature, the entity in front of you. It is as frightening as it is beautiful.

But the danger and the stakes are real: you must win or life, all life in this world, will be lost.

You know that if you are victorious, you will never be able to tell anybody. The memory of the foe must never be shared. Nobody must ever know.

And if you lose…. well nobody will be left to remember.

Roll initiative.

Fighting the unknown

The confused heroes readied for battle, unsure as to how to fight whatever this foe was.

While the creature took damage from Amelia’s spells and Alfein’s daggers, it seems to ignore Orlando’s sleep spell.

Alfein, trying to make sense of the creature, decided to touch it. She felt the odd metal yet flesh, wet yet dry surface moving under her hand.

One by one the heroes fell to the devastating alien psychic attacks. Amelia tried to keep everybody on their feet, but alas it was in vain.

One by one, our heroes died.

Waking up

Our heroes woke up with the sounds and smells of the battle. Hearts pounding, adrenalin pumping.

The experience quickly disappearing to that illusive place dreams go to when you wake up.

Yet, the image of the creature stayed and the pain of the fatal wound that had struck each of them down, was there. And in its place was a scar. A scare that looked years old, yet they all knew it wasn’t there the day before.

And while they had been intimately familiar with each other in the dream, in reality Orlando and Amelia knew each other only by name and Alfein was new to them both.

An evening at the Copper Pixie

As our heroes went on with their days separately, they all three ended up in the fairly full and lively Copper Pixie where Clank, the odd little automaton owner, milled about serving customers.

Clank had his hands full with some standard drunk idiot at the bar, but our heroes were paying little attention to what was going on in the tavern as they were focussed on each other, each sitting at their own table.

In the end the staring became too much for Amelia and she walked up to Orlando quickly confirming they had indeed had the same dream and both bore the wavy scar tissue.

Alfein joined them just as the drunkard and Clank had gotten into a more rowdy kerfuffle. The event turn violent as the drunkard started spewing hateful slurs against the owner, insulting the fact he had a love for the tales of the fey and fairies.

As he started hitting the little automaton, the heroes stepped in and quickly escorted him off the premises, but not after he started accusing Orlando for being a fey due to his unusual Shadar-Kai skin.

And after ensuring Clank was ok they sat down to compare what each of them knew, which wasn’t much.

The Iron Masquarade

Unfortunately, the drunkard appeared again coming back from the rainy night outside. And he had brought a group of cloaked people wearing iron masks: the Iron Masquerade, a secretive group who actually believed the Fey are real and a threat to Daisygate.

Alfein slid by one of them successfully lifted something that felt like a necklace. Although the Iron Mask didn’t notice the elegant pick, he still used the close proximity to stab at Alfein with his long vicious dagger.

And the fight was on.

The heroes fought well, but they were outnumbered and Amelia fell followed by Orlando.

As Orlando fell, Daryl Dug-Deep, the local Dwarven Barber Surgeon, stepped in and quickly gave Orlando a healing potion while rebuking the Iron Masquerade. As he kept shouting at the cloaked figures, he also got Amelia up on her feet.

Now the Iron Masquerade had gathered their wits and readied for an attack against the old dwarf, but the patrons of the tavern stepped in, many of whom had had help from Daryl on the past. And the Iron Masquerade withdrew towing their dead comrade.

Aftermath

As the excitement died down, people started leaving until only our heroes were left. While they kept talking about their share experience, Daryl Dug-Deep came stumbling in with a heavy crate.

Drenched from the weather outside, he crashed to the ground disappearing behind the crate.

The heroes ran to his aid, but he could not be saved. Even Amelia’s spells were of no use. Death it seems would have its price today.

With his last breath Daryl asked the heroes to bring the crate to Thornlock and deliver it to people waiting there. They would be recognizable with a symbol of three roses intertwined, one green, one blue, one black. Daryl’s final words was a warning not to open the crate.

Alfein told the other two that he had seen that symbol with a group ofd travellers he had travelled with part of the way to Daisygate. He overheard them refer to themselves as The Triarch.

Thornlock

The heroes made it to Thornlock with no further incident. But there was nobody to greet them.

They considered entering the crazy looking encampment, but decided against it. Orlando used a cantrip to send up a “bat signal” like flare of the three roses. But nobody responded.

They walk all the way around Thornlock, but found nothing. no signs, no people. nothing.

As the sky to the east started glowing from the rising sun, they finally decided to open the crate. To their surprise they found a little girl, no more than 11 or 12 sleeping in the crate.

That would have been odd enough in itself, but the girl was bright green skinned from head to toe. Even in the dull rain her colours were vibrant and saturated. Orlando commented that the richness of her skin colour was almost the opposite of the Shadowfell where he had grown up.

While none of them recognised her race, it was clear she was no orc or goblin and Alfein found she was strangely familiar as a creature.

But the citizen of Daisygate was starting to awake so the heroes withdrew to Amelia’s shop.

Here they decided to get some rest. They lifted the girl out of the crate and onto a bed and took turns to keep watch. In the end, sleep overtook them all and as the morning crept in, they awoke with the little girl wide awake staring at them